Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to page 20 of the King’s Speech Background Briefing Notes, published by the Prime Minister's Office on 17 July 2024, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of people who will be affected by the proposals to ban exploitative zero-hour contracts (a) nationally and (b) in Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (for January to March 2024) suggest that around 1,030,000 people (representing 3.1% of total employment) were employed on a zero-hours contract in the UK.

Over the same period there were approximately 71,000 people (equating to 2.7% of total employment) employed on a zero-hours contract in Scotland.